#environmental equity

Excerpt from this story from the Center for American Progress:

Long-running environmental injustices, such as the concentration of toxic air pollution and water pollution near communities of color, have been exacerbated by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with Black, Indigenous, and Latino communities experiencing higher virus-related hospitalization and death rates than white communities. Further, in many parts of the country, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed an uneven and inequitable distribution of nearby outdoor spaces for recreation, respite, and enjoyment. Particularly in communities of color and low-income communities, families have too few safe, close-to-home parks and coastlines where they are able to get outside. At this time of social distancing, when clean, fresh air is most wanted and needed, nature is out of reach for too many.

The unequal distribution of nature in America—and the unjust experiences that many people of color have in the outdoors—is a problem that national, state, and local leaders can no longer ignore. With scientists urging policymakers to protect at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and ocean by 2030 to address the biodiversity and climate crises, now is the time to imagine how, by protecting far more lands and waters over the next decade, the United States can guarantee every child in America the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of nature near their home.

Using a new analysis by Conservation Science Partners (CSP), commissioned by Hispanic Access Foundation (HAF) and the Center for American Progress, this report examines the distribution of America’s remaining natural areas to understand the types and extent of disparities in nature access that exist in the United States. This report is intended to supplement, not supplant, the many individual voices and grassroots efforts that have been calling out and working to solve the many inequities and injustices in American natural resource policy. The data in this report help confirm the scale of racial and economic disparities in U.S. nature access. In particular, this report finds that the United States has fewer forests, streams, wetlands, and other natural places near where Black, Latino, and Asian American people live. Notably, families with children—especially families of color with children—have less access to nature nearby than the rest of the country. In other words, these communities are nature deprived.

Excerpt from this EcoWatch story:

A new international study has pinpointed an enormous chasm in the amount of resources the rich use versus the poor — both within their own countries and compared to an international population, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Energy.

The researchers found that the wealthiest tenth of people use up about 20 times more overall energy than the bottom ten percent, no matter where they are, according to the BBC. The greatest part of the disparity is in transportation, where the wealthiest tenth consume 187 times more fuel than the poorest ten percent.

The researchers from the University of Leeds parsed data from the World Bank and the European Union to calculate the energy consumption of residents in 86 different countries, both highly industrialized and developing countries, according to the study. The researchers also looked at what energy-intensive goods and services different income groups use and how the different income groups spend their money.

Excerpt from this article from the University of Leeds Environmental News:

The study examined energy inequality for income classes across 86 countries, from highly industrialised to developing nations.

In the first study of its kind, University of Leeds researchers combined European Union and World Bank data to calculate the distribution of energy footprints, as well as what energy-intensive goods and services different income groups tend to spend their money on.

Their study, which is published today in Nature Energy, shows that energy footprints grow with expenditure, and, as a consequence, are unequally distributed.

Among all the countries and income classes in the study, the top 10% consume roughly 20 times more energy than the bottom 10%.

Additionally, as income increases, people spend more of their money on energy-intensive goods, such as package holidays or cars, leading to high energy inequality. Indeed, the researchers found that 187 times more vehicle fuel energy is used by the top 10% consumers relative to the bottom 10%.

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

During a break in the official proceedings, park system directors, environmentalists and urban park advocates followed a tour guide down Benjamin Franklin Parkway, past the iconic Philadelphia Museum of Art and onto the city’s picturesque Boathouse Row, where gingerbread clubhouses anchor one of the nation’s most vibrant rowing communities.

With the non-profit City Parks Alliance focusing on equity and climate resilience at its biennial Greater & Greener conference, hosted this year by Philadelphia, the walk through Fairmount Park, the largest urban park in America, was illustrative: the Parkway, modeled after the Champs Elysees in Paris, is undergoing a redesign to make it more inclusive as an recreation area, while Boathouse Row, less than a year ago, was underwater as Hurricane Ida flooded the city’s parks and highways and brought the Schuylkill River to levels not seen since 1869.

Two top officials dispatched by the Biden administration to serve as Greater & Greener keynote speakers, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, described the need for greater urban park equity in the broader context of climate change and its constellation of threats to cities and their park systems: more intense hurricanes with their flooding and high winds, increased precipitation, sea level rise, heats waves and, in some parts of the countries, surging wildfires.

Both Landrieu and Haaland touted the administration’s America the Beautiful initiative, a plan to conserve 30 percent of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030 through public-private partnerships. Haaland noted that the plan represented the first ever national conservation goal. Landrieu, now President Biden’s senior advisor for infrastructure coordination, touted a $1 billion competition to spur conservation partnerships involving governments at all levels, nonprofits and the private sector. “Parks are the most democratic things that exist in the United States of America,” he said.  

Don't Fall for this Greenwashing Trick

Chemical recycling may be a scam, according to research done by a major environmental group. Chemical recycling is a relatively new method popularized by industry groups as recycling exportation breaks down. It’s a process where plastic is treated with compounds that reduce it back to monomers, which can then be made into new polymers and therefore new plastics. It’s said to be more efficient and…

Local governments still haven’t done much toxic wastelands in communities of color

As a child, my grandfather took my brother and me to a park in a Jacksonville, Florida African-American suburb. The park included standard kid-approved characteristics: The swings, grass, seesaws, sunshine and instantaneous friendships formed during play. Then, my grandpa learned that the park was constructed on a toxic site. He never took us back. I didn’t completely understand why. A recent…